David Cameron India visit: Many trade deals struck between UK and India

India News Bulletin Desk

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s 100-strong business delegation in India has signed various trade deals on the first day of Cameron’s state visit to India. Among the highlights are UK retailer Debenhams opening new stores in India by 2017 and British Health Care opening its first health care centre in Delhi.

British PM David Cameron talks to staff at Hindustan Unilever in India
British PM David Cameron talks to staff at Hindustan Unilever in India
Image: UK in India embassy rights free image

On his visit, Cameron said: “As India grows, it needs a partner that can support its ambition –in infrastructure, in energy, in healthcare and more. It wants its business to have access to European and global markets and its students to get the best education in the world and Britain can do all these things.”

The UK prime minister is scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart, the president, a number of Indian government ministers, and investors and businesses in both Mumbai and Delhi.

In its bid to build deeper ties with growing economies like India where represent opportunities as against the stagnant European markets, the UK government is  supporting and encouraging local companies to do business in India in the future.

“We are on track to double our trade with India by 2015. India has great potential to become one of the largest markets in the world,” said UK trade minister Lord Green.

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David Cameron’s three-day visit to India to boost ties begins today

Cameron’s largest ever delegation in an overseas trip have made progress in striking trade and investment deals in India, according to the British High Commission in the UK.

British retailer Debenhams is opening ten new stores across India by 2017. The Royal Mint and the MMTC-PAMP India have collaborated to strike The Royal Mint’s gold Sovereign commemorative coins in India for the first time in a century.

Among other new trade deals for the UK are:

  • Wolverhampton based British Health Care is opening their first primary health care centre in Delhi.
  • UK’s Benoy has won a new contract to design a shopping mall in Bangalore.
  • Mott MacDonald has been roped in to provide architectural design services for construction of six stations of the £2bn Hyderabad metro project.
  • The InterContinental Hotel Group will build 13 new hotels in Indian cities in the coming years.
  • Hampshire-based Serco, the international service company, will collaborate with ICICI Bank to jointly provide services to the Indian transportation sector.
  • UK’s Porvair has been selected to design and build char filtration systems in Jamnagar, the largest oil refining complex in the world.

Meanwhile, there were investment deals from India too.

  • India’s TVS Logistics acquired UK company Ricoh
  • Ashok Leyland is setting up its first overseas technical R&D centre in Warwickshire at the MIRA Technology Park.
  • Polaris will expand its Belfast operations to offer cloud-based IT services to financial services customers
  • Hinduja Global Solutions is expanding its TalkTalk operations in Preston.
  • Sahara will open a new International India Centre at the University of East London.
  • Tata Consultancy Services will set up a secure, state of the art, delivery centre in Liverpool.

The UK government is encouraging more innovative technology companies from India to set up in the UK, Cameron said.

It will also support the creation of a new pan-India network of British Business Centres by 2017.

David Cameron is in India between February 18 and 20, 2013.

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